Cyclist Lance Armstrong will be stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles and banned from the sport for life after refusing to fight drug allegations by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

“He will be banned for life and loss of results since Aug. 1, 1998,” Annie Skinner, a USADA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail last night. An official statement will be issued today, she said.

Armstrong’s attorneys sent a letter to USADA yesterday saying he would not seek arbitration of the agency’s accusations that he used and trafficked prohibited drugs, allegations the cyclist said were part of an “unconstitutional witch hunt.”

“If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA’s process I could confront these allegations in a fair setting and -- once and for all -- put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance,” Armstrong said in a separate statement. “But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair.”

His decision came three days after a federal judge in Armstrong’s hometown of Austin, Texas, rejected the cyclist’s request to block USADA from proceeding with its case. More...

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

COOPER: Tonight, two of Lance Armstrong's biggest sponsors, Nike and Anheuser Busch are sticking by the superstar cyclist and cancer survivor. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said today it is stripping Armstrong of his seven Tour De France titles.

Also barred him (inaudible) in sports subject to its doping rules, all this came just hours after Armstrong announced he's giving up his battle to clear his name. He maintains he has never used performance enhancing drugs.

So the question is why then has he given up the fight? Bill Strickland, an editor-at-large at "Bicycling" magazine has followed Armstrong's career from the beginning.

He's also the author of "Tour De Lance, The Extraordinary Story of Lance Armstrong's Fight to Reclaim the Tour De France." He has traveled with him since 1992 when he started covering him. We spoke earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: What do you make of Lance Armstrong's decision?

BILL STRICKLAND, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, "BICYCLING" MAGAZINE: Think it was his best option. He -- I think he knew that -- whether he agrees with it or not, I think he knew the evidence and the testimony that he would face in the arbitration process was just overwhelming.

COOPER: Testimony from people who had been on his team who had doped along with him?

STRICKLAND: Team members, presumably other people connected to the team. There's a lot of speculation about who it was. But through my own reporting, it's been reported elsewhere, there were definitely teammates --

COOPER: And you think that testimony would have been pretty devastating?

STRICKLAND: It would have been. There's -- you know, some of the names are no surprise. Floyd Landis, Taylor Hamilton and they've had some troubles with their integrity because they've lied about their doping initially.

But some of those people who gave testimony had either thus far never been implicated in doping and were also trusted members of his team. They weren't -- they were never sort of thrown off his team.

COOPER: You -- you've spent a lot of time with Lance Armstrong going back I think to '92 is when you first started to really kind of hang out with him. And you've been I mean kind of in different spots on the spectrum of believing he was doping, believing he was innocent. You came to believe, though, that he was doping.

STRICKLAND: Right. You know, through -- along -- through the long time I knew him, like I think everyone who looked at some of the innuendo and rumors, which now turn out to be evidence. I went back and forth for a long time. Last year, I had an interaction with someone from that era. You know, a character who played a role in this --

COOPER: You can't say who?

STRICKLAND: It was off the record. I can't say who. It convinced me personally without a doubt. I always felt he deserved at least a doubt. Just because he was such a figure of hope for so many people and such a great athlete even when I -- seemed to be certain that he doped, I always wanted to extend that doubt to him.

COOPER: You have no doubt that he did dope?

STRICKLAND: No doubt.

COOPER: He said, look, I passed 500 tests. I think the numbers vary. I've heard him say that. How do you account for that?

STRICKLAND: That's an impressive number. He had a lot of tests and he got through those tests. You know, what we've learned is that as anti-doping caught up, the cyclists got smarter and they learned how to avoid the tests using smaller doses of EPO, which is the blood boosting drug.

COOPER: So they would use a smaller amount more regularly than just one large amount at a time?

STRICKLAND: Right. They learned how to cycle it. They would also use their own blood in conjunction with EPO. There were all sorts of ways to kind of sneak through the markers that the tests set up.

COOPER: I guess what I can't wrap my mind around is if he is innocent, why would he then take this step? It does seem to indicate a level of guilt. Is the system unfair? He says the trial would be completely unfair.

STRICKLAND: Right. The system certainly could be seen as unfair. You know, you saw it as -- win rate, incredibly high. It's not the same as our criminal and our civil courts. It's a little different. It's a little harder for the athletes to win. If you believe lance, it's certainly easy to see the system is unfair.

COOPER: What happens now? Does he return to jersey? Is there a blank space by the record books? Because some of the other people that came in second in some of these races also doped.

STRICKLAND: Right. It gets really interesting from here. It's going to be naughty. Everyone who finished second him behind has either been convicted of doping or admitted or very strongly implicated.

COOPER: Everyone?

STRICKLAND: Everyone, all of the seven podiums.

COOPER: What do you think happens to him now though? Does his charity get affected? Does it change anything for him?

STRICKLAND: You know, it's fascinating. Is he going to become shoeless Joe who sort of has become this beloved figure, this beloved banned figure? Or is he going to be Marion Jones or Barry Bonds who are looked at with less heart? We don't know, you know. Time's going to tell.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: Good evening

MORGAN: Coming up next, banned for life. Lance Armstrong pays the price for doping allegations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE ARMSTRONG, CYCLIST: Every time we chose to just sit back and let it pass, we've sort of reached the point where we really can't tolerate any more and we're sick and tired of these allegations and we're going to do everything we can to fight them. They're absolutely untrue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORGAN: Lance Armstrong speaking back in 2004. Now he's gone from the greatest Tour de France winner of all time, an inspiration to millions, to an athlete banned for life from the sport of cycling.

MORGAN: A quite extraordinary development in this saga of Lance Armstrong.

Were you as shocked as everybody else seems to have been when he threw the towel in?

BRENNAN: Yes, he gave up. I mean, the ultimate battler in sports just quits. I don't know if I was completely shocked because he'd been saying this all along, that he was fed up and sick and tired. But the thought that he would -- as you say, wave the white flag of surrender knowing that that meant he was lose the Tour de France titles, be banned for life and forever be labeled a cheater at least officially. You know, he's got his fan base.

But I -- it tells you I think he was very concerned about what the testimony would have been in arbitration if he had faced that. So he decided to go to the court of public opinion instead.

MORGAN: To all the fans in uproar, I've been on Twitter, and give you my view. To me, he's obviously I think throwing the towel in because he was a cheat.

But there are many people still defending him, saying, look, he never failed a drugs test and this is a complete stitch up. What do you say to that? What's the informed reaction?

BRENNAN: Marion Jones never failed a drug test and she is known as one of the great cheaters of our time.

Ben Johnson who of course, was caught in 1988 in Seoul and really kicked off the steroids era, Piers. Ben Johnson passed all kinds of drug tests in the '80s before he was caught that one time.

Frankly, now, they call them non-analytical positives. And there are more and more, dozens of them. They're catching athletes with documents, with testimony, the way they would, say, in a trial.

So it's nice of Lance to try to say that and pull the wool over everybody's eyes. But the reality is, in this part, in this time, in 2012, you can definitely get away with it by not -- by cheating and by being obviously able to pass drug tests. And that is no indication anymore, sad to say, because the bad chemists are way ahead of the good chemists. No indication you're not cheating if you pass drug tests.

MORGAN: Do you think, Christine, there's any doubt Lance Armstrong was a cheat?

BRENNAN: Well, I'm a journalist. There always has to be some doubt because how can we know for sure. But the evidence is monumental here. And why would Lance run away from it and not face this arbitration. That's what he was going to have here. He was headed to arbitration. Dozens of athletes do this, Piers. He would have been able to pick one of the arbitrators. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency would have picked another arbitrator. Those two arbitrators would have picked a third.

This was not a kangaroo court. This was not a rush to judgment. It would have been a very fair look at what the evidence was.

So my informed decision after covering this for many years is to say yes, it sounds like he is one of the great cheaters of our era. That's very sad because of what he means to the cancer community.

MORGAN: Yes. You know, you can't take away the fact that he's raised whatever it is, $500 million, for cancer charities. That's very laudable.

The problem is that Lance Armstrong has had this reputation of being one of the good guys of sport. And I'm afraid today that's al been shattered. He will go down as a cheat.

And that's a shame for him. But it's a bigger shame for sport and for the fans who believed in him.

Christine, thank you for joining me tonight.

BRENNAN: Piers, thank you very much. ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

VALKENBURG, Netherlands — The chief of world cycling's governing body is questioning why American anti-doping authorities have not sent him the file of evidence that prompted them to erase Lance Armstrong's seven Tour de France titles and ban him for life.

International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid on Saturday said the United States Anti-Doping Agency had not given the UCI a date to expect the details, and he sounded impatient to receive them.

"UCI assumes that USADA have the file, the full file, as they've already made a decision based on it and therefore it's difficult to understand why it hasn't arrived yet," McQuaid said from the Road Cycling World Championships in the southern Netherlands. ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

http://www.statesman.com/news/sports/armstrongs-attorney-launches-new-attack-on-usada/nSYgz/Armstrong’s attorney launches new attack on USADAOctober 9, 2012After saying in August that he no longer wanted to fight the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Lance Armstrong had his lawyer contact the organization this week to dispute how USADA will release information about its case against the retired cyclist.Tim Herman, Armstrong’s attorney, told the American-Statesman on Tuesday that USADA has opted not to provide its evidence against Armstrong to the International Cycling Union, which ultimately could decide whether to strip Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles. Instead, the agency has told the UCI it will send them a “reasoned decision,” which likely will be made available later this week.“What they’re going to do is put their spin on the evidence to make it as harmful as possible to Lance Armstrong,” Herman said.Herman sent a five-page letter to USADA general counsel William Bock on Monday, outlining his concerns and stating that most of the agency’s witnesses already had been found to not be credible by an arbitration panel in 2006. Herman said USADA still is trying to “coerce” witnesses.When Armstrong declined to fight USADA through another round of arbitration in August, the agency banned him from the sports it governs for life and said it would wipe out his results dating back to 1998. The agency said it made the decision based on testimony from more than 10 witnesses, including former teammates, who said Armstrong used banned performance-enhancing substances and encouraged them to do so throughout his cycling career.“The rules require us to provide a reasoned decision in every case, and we are happy to let the evidence speak for itself,” said USADA spokesperson Annie Skinner.The UCI, cycling’s governing body, has stated it has the authority to punish Armstrong, not USADA, and asked for the agency’s evidence six weeks ago. Tour de France officials also haven’t moved to strip Armstrong of his yellow jerseys.More...

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lance Armstrong is stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity to help it limit the damage from the doping scandal that has snared the former champion cyclist. ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/top-news/nike-ends-contract-with-lance-armstrong/nSfjc/Nike severs ties to Armstrong "with great sadness"October 17, 2012NEW YORK — Nike has severed ties with famed cyclist Lance Armstrong, citing insurmountable evidence that he participated in doping and misled the company about those activities for more than a decade.The clothing and footwear company said Wednesday that it terminated Armstrong's contract "with great sadness.""Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner," it said in a statement.Armstrong said Wednesday, just minutes before the announcement from Nike, that he was stepping down as chairman of his Livestrong cancer-fighting charity so that the organization can steer clear of the whirlwind surrounding its founder.Nike Inc., based in Beaverton, Ore., said it plans to continue its support for Livestrong ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

GENEVA – Cycling legend Lance Armstrong's fall from grace was completed Monday, when the sport's governing body stripped him of all seven Tour de France titles and banned him for life on the heels of a damning report from U.S. officials that concluded he cheated throughout his career.

The 41-year-old cancer survivor's unprecedented dominance in the grueling sport can now be stricken from the record books, though Armstrong continues to insist he never cheated. The announcement came Monday morning, and was based on a report from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that accused Armstrong of leading a massive doping program on his teams.

The report included testimony from several former teammates who competed alongside Armstrong as he won the sport's most coveted title every year from 1999 to 2005. Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme has said the race will have no official winners for those years. ::snipping2:: USADA also thinks the Tour titles should not be given to other riders who finished on the podium, such was the level of doping during Armstrong's era.

The agency said 20 of the 21 riders on the podium in the Tour from 1999 through 2005 have been "directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations" or other means. It added that of the 45 riders on the podium between 1996 and 2010, 36 were by cyclists "similarly tainted by doping."

The world's most famous cyclist could still face further sports sanctions and legal challenges. Armstrong could lose his 2000 Olympic time-trial bronze medal and may be targeted with civil lawsuits from ex-sponsors or even the U.S. government. (let's just leave it at that) ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

As Lance Armstrong continued to face fallout from doping allegations -- this time, being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles -- questions still surround a federal investigation that closed without criminal charges being filed.

U.S. Atty. Andre Birotte Jr.'s office declined to comment on the inquiry on Monday, other than to say the case remains closed. The cycling governing's body announced Monday it would follow a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recommendation that Armstrong be banned and lose the titles for being involved in the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

In addition to the USADA inquiry, Armstrong -- who has long denied doping allegations -- was the focus of a separate two-year probe that was closed earlier this year. The grand jury investigation was confidential, but the media widely reported details about the former teammates and associates who were subpoenaed to testify about banned substances.

When announcing in February that no charges would be filed -- a rare public statement on the closure of a secret probe -- Birotte praised the work of investigators but gave no reason for concluding the investigation without charges.

Armstrong, however, said in a statement that it was the "right decision."

When prosecutors first announced the investigation closed, USADA said its job was to "protect clean sport rather than enforce specific criminal laws." ::snipping2::

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

AUSTIN (AP) — Lance Armstrong has cut formal ties with his cancer-fighting charity to avoid further damage brought by doping charges and being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Armstrong resigned from the board of directors for Livestrong on Nov. 4. He had previously resigned as chairman from the charity he founded Oct. 17 but had kept a seat on the board. ::snipping2::Livestrong spokeswoman Katherine McLane said Monday that Armstrong "remains the inspiration," and is still its largest donor with nearly $7 million over the years.

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" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

AUSTIN, Texas – DEVELOPING -- A person familiar with the situation says Lance Armstrong confessed to Oprah Winfrey during an interview Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the interview is to be broadcast Thursday on Winfrey's network.

Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey was "emotional at times," according to a person familiar with the situation, and it followed an apology to the staff at the Livestrong Foundation that left some of them in tears.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity and would neither confirm nor deny that the disgraced cyclist confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs during the taping, which is scheduled to be broadcast Thursday night and is supposed to remain confidential until then.